Hey TG

Potentially from a tribe that lives in the upper canopy of the rainforest, you could even mention there are other lizardmen tribes that have taken up other ecological niches for themselves (helping with worldbuilding is always nice).

He's from space. He hatched when his egg entered the atmosphere. His one weakness is swamplike mountainous regions.

They live in the deepest jungles, deserts, tropical islands, and sometimes in caverns where there's enough magma nearby to keep the place toasty.
Their architecture and style of warfare is usually copied and modified from the human culture which they compete with for territory.

You can do experiment route where for some reason human + reptile has a much higher success rate than human + mammal, so there's a few regions in the world where someone tried this which now have lizardmen.

The first lizardfolk were a group of humans who were cursed/blessed

There's signs that lizardfolk used to be the or a dominant species on the world. After a calamity (ice-age, reptile-only disease, god-stuff, etc.) their numbers fell until only a few pockets remained, and now they have to crawl their way back up again.

For some reason occasionally people who have never even seen a lizardman have nightmares of being hunted by one.

Lizardmen were trying to travel to their version of heaven, but ended up emerging in (world). Some of them are just kinda bummed out, some of them are furious, some of them think that this really is heaven etc. and because of these different beliefs they have internal struggles and a high rate of a group of them deciding to fuck off and find another patch of the world to live in.

Dragons consider his species a sex toy. Refluff his breath weapon to be a cloacal laser. He considers water to be his favorite food.

Lustria

His mom was a legless lizardlady, and he gets mad if people call her a snakelady. He doesn't travel faster than a brisk walk because the air movement makes his nose-holes get dry and burn. Elves raided the eggs of his brothers and sisters and made them into magical potions. He hated elves until he tried lizardman egg potion and now he understands.

Caves in the jungle, formed by the roots of trees that make redwoods seem like ferns.

When the gods saw that lizardmen could walk while swinging swords and dire flails and crap, they created elfmen and dorfmen, and hughmen in the same way. They totally bit the lizard God's style, but he's done trying to convince people.

His main attack is the ultimate technique of his sensei. A karate chop with both hands to the neck. He hates this technique because he has fucking talons.

There's fish with antifreeze, but there isn't a real-world example for that with reptiles.
Salamanders and dragons both are associated with fire, so maybe they constantly have an internal fire burning?

On the occasions that lizardfolk show-up they're usually just violent aztecs.
My only problem with lizardfolk is that it seems like reptile is a unique enough biology and perspective for it to be it's own race, and lizardfolk seem like they would make alot more sense than dragon-people.
The simple facts that reptiles lay-eggs, often don't raise their young, and largely because of those things don't have the same kind of sexual dimorphism humans do is interesting.

There's many more examples of reptiles in the real-world where the female is the biggest and strongest than there are for mammals. Would this mean that female lizardfolk would have approximately the role that male humans do in society? If the female is already way stronger than the male, then what does the male do to woo her? Would there be an even ratio of males to females, or would there be more males of more females? How big would the size difference be, would there difference in size be that of a a heads-worth, or would the males be the size of halflings like a kappa and the females and big as orcs.

What about the lack of nurturing? Are young-ones simple left in the wild until they find their way to a group of their own kind? If nurturing is an unnatural thing for them, does each village a couple of specialists who's only job is to take care of a bunch of lizard kids? How does social interaction work between lizardfolk then, are they basically autistic? Would you find a lizardfolk travelling out into the world on their own just because they can't stand being around other lizardfolk?

I have a hard time picturing a lizardman eating wheat or rice, so do they fish?, hunt?, make vegetable fields? fruit orchards?

There's lots of interesting things to do with lizardmen than make them artctic.

He is not a scary lizardman. He is a really cute lizardman with a cool color pattern. His people often settle in big cities, where they hustle people in sports. He eats bugs and hella fruit and bread, but not the crust.

Nice Idea mang.
That could be an okay thought
That is incredibly good worldbuilding user.

His best friends are a werewolf and a hadozee. People always say they are like the monsters from Rampage, but he doesn't get the reference. Other lizardmen(and lizardboys) think it's cool to wear a pinwheel at the end of their tails, but that's just a stupid fad made up by dragonkin gangs.

your welcome

Their species lack of nurturing means they imprint on the first civilized race they encounter. This helps them adapt. Only about 30% imprint on other lizardmen. Once they put on armor their scales take its shape. They can then shed and regrow armor while they sleep.

you realize you're that guy right

I don't see why they would have to be lizardmen in that case.
Maybe instead a weird artifical flesh-thing, like a hommunculus?

I'm just throwing out original lizard ideas. If anything sticks to the wall, throw it in.
It would be interesting if this was a desert lizardman who thinks trees suck because they block the sun. His face gets inflamed by too much water. He doesn't hiss, he whines.

He came a from a cold place, so when he moved to the rainforests where your campaign setting is, he finds out he doesn't like warmth and wants to be a lich so he never has to feel warmth again.
First, explain how dragons fly without magic using real world biology and physics, Second, giving a detailed character backstory to OP won't teach him hiw to think up ideas for himself, so giving him a template helps him think for himself, and third, telling people to commit suicide is an un-christian thing to do.

I was picturing a lizard shedding its skin combined with donning/doffing mechanics. It is vulnerable at night without its hard scales.

That's just funny

Lizards farm crickets the size of cats. Merchants try to convince people they're green lobsters to sell them better in the market..
Reptillians hate dragonborn, and when they see undead humans their first assumption is that they're just regular people. Even when they know they're undead, their first assumption is that they're intelligent.
Scaleskins have a more mild version of heatvision. They're sometimes employed by miners for their ability to detect magma, creatures that breathe fire, and a rare type of gem/mineral that produces heat.
Cold-ones can eat meat and fish raw, and sometimes without chewing. They often need to boil vegetables to make easy enough to eat since their teeth and jaws aren't well equipped for chewing hard carrots.
No-blinking head-turners make campfires even when they aren't cooking food, and sometimes in broad daylight.
Long-tongues are often blamed for eating someone's pet. Sometimes the blame is correct. They don't consider dogs and other mammals to be cute usually, so they don't have issue eating them.

I think an arthropod like an insect or crustacean would fit better tho.
An exoskeleton is much more comprable to armor than scales are, and some arthropods molt which is kind of like shedding.

Or perhaps he hates the wet. Makes him itch. Wants to be desiccated. Wants to switch to lich so he doesn't itch like a bitch in this sitch.

Sick rhymes bro

>how dragons fly without magic using real world biology and physics

well bumble bees for one

are you retarded?

deeraaagons
fuh-lie
lie-uk-kuh
bum-bell
beez
freend

...

whatever helps you sleep at night bby

From the depths of the past. The lizardmen lived in the time of dinosaurs and died when they did, but some used temporal magic to fling themselves into the far future. Now they've reappeared and are trying to gain an understanding of a world vastly changed.

Are you done?

you asked, not my fault you're too stoopid to understand the answer

Dragons are an established piece of mythology tho.
Tundra lizards are not.

If something isn't going to be realistic, then it should either have an interesting story or internal logic, or be an established piece of myth.
I'm assuming there's some reason that big flying magic reptiles are a significant myth in multiple regions of the world. Something instinctual or something.
Even if it's just that they found dinosaur bones or something, I think most people would prefer to have dragons in their game than tundra lizards. A GM needs players, so the GM should make a world that won't feel dumb to their players.

He's an outcast from the culture of subterranean jew lizards who are secretly controlling the world.

His penis.

Also, tundra lizard may be aesthetically unique, but it doesn't sound unique in any other way.

Other than the fact that they look different, why couldn't ice reptilians instead be replaced by slavs, nords, or eskimos?
Even if you're determined for them to be a different species, why not manatee, bear, penguin, or fox folk instead?
I don't know of any examples of penguin-people, so they're no less unique than frost-iguanas, but they have the advantage of making more sense with their environment.